Showing papers on "Prejudice published in 1971"

Antisemitism in America

Abstract: BLThe first comprehensive history of antisemitism in America Dinnerstein draws on an extraordinary number of sources and provides a cogently argued yet complex narrative for the history of this prejudice from its roots in Colonial America to the rantings of Henry Ford and present day prejudices.

A Study of Ethnic Slurs: The Jew and the Polack in the United States

Abstract: ONE OF THE MOST INTERESTING ASPECTS of the study of man concerns the alleged or actual character traits of different cultures and subcultures. In anthropology and psychology there is a vast literature devoted to "national character," ethnic psychology or Volkscharakter.1 While some scholars have despaired of ever arriving at a rigorous description of the "modal personality" or fundamental character of different groups, there seems little doubt that different peoples do manifest different personality traits. Interest in such matters depends, of course, upon whether a particular investigator wishes to emphasize the essential similarities of peoples or to dwell upon the various differences. There is an equally large literature on the apparently universal propensity of man to stereotype. Ever since the coining of the term by journalist Walter Lippmann in his book Public Opinion in 1922, social psychologists among others have actively sought to refine the concept and to document its existence and influence.2 Attention has been given both to stereotypes of self and to stereotypes of others. In addition, there have been special studies concerned with the relationship between stereotypes and prejudice." It seems clear that stereotypes do contribute materially to the formation and perpetuation of deep-seated prejudices. Yet, in examining the extensive national character and stereotype scholarship, one finds surprisingly little reference to the materials of folklore. Stereotypes are described almost solely on the basis of questionnaires or interviews in which an a priori set of adjectives, such as "honest" or "stingy," are assigned by informants to national or ethnic groups. One wonders, methodologically speaking, just how the researcher selects the initial list of adjectives and whether or not his personal

From Shanties to Lace Curtains: The Irish Image in Puck, 1876–1910

Abstract: Students of drama, magazine fiction and novels know that virtually every nationality and minority group has been represented by a stereotype in print and on the stage. Social scientists generally discuss stereotypes as components of prejudiced beliefs accompanied by strong, unexamined reactions of dislike or approval. Historians and specialists in literature do not equate stereotyping with prejudice. Instead, they emphasize the origin of stereotypes as routinized, crude or at least oversimplified classifications of multifaceted characters and situations.

Part II. The Relation between Religious Belief and Structural Change in Religious Orders: Some Evidence

Abstract: When religious orders are compared on differences in belief described as Pre-Vatican and Post-Vatican they also differ significantly in their preference for certain theologians and their preferences for types of works. Although age also explains this difference, even with age held constant the difference remains. Those with Post-Vatican beliefs express reading preferences and choice of works which affirm action to transform society as distinct from action to adjust to existing patterns. Part I of this report (Neal, 1970) described and analyzed an instrument developed in 1967 to measure religious beliefs as part of a national survey studying the relationship between religious belief and social change. It was administered to 80 per cent of all Catholic women in religious orders in the United States, with 89 per cent of all those contacted responding. The central hypothesis of the study is that religious belief is a major determiinant of (1) receptiveness to change and of (2) change. Measures called PreVatican Belief and Post-Vatican Belief were described, and their validity and reliability as measures of two distinctly different belief orientations were demonstrated. Each measure consisted of a set of thirty items presented as part of a questionnaire containing 649 items dealing not only with belief and other attitudes, such as anomie, authoritarianism, prejudice, interest, value, and change, but also of the following themes: perception of current religious and social conditions, conditions within religious orders dealing with formation, liturgy, service, community life, and government; attitudes towards changes already introduced and those desired, expected, and/or rejected or feared; definitions of situations currently being experienced in the church and in the social environment with particular emphasis on attitudes toward the works of health, education, and welfare in which religious order members are engaged; job satisfaction; exposure to, periodicals, films, TV programs, formal education, and theological works; and in-

Religious beliefs and self-disclosure.

Abstract: Summary.-The relationship between religious beliefs and scores on Jourard's self-disclosure scale was investigated (N = 83). The correlation between beliefs and self-disclosure was zero-order. Ss did perceive themselves to be significantly more "liberal" in religious beliefs than they felt their parents would expect. Over the past two decades studies of 'religion' have measured such varied things as religious affiliation, social affiliation, religious practices, and religious beliefs. It has been too often concluded that, since certain religious groups demonstrated characteristics such as dogmatism or authoritarianism, these qualities must be direct functions of the content of their religious belief (cf. Gregory, 1957; Rokeach, 1960; Brown & Lowe, 1951). However, as Feagin (1964) and Gilmore (1969) demonstrate, even in religious groups with homogeneous theological positions there is a great deal of heterogeneity on such variables as dogmatism and prejudice. Thus, the evidence is equivocal that religious beliefs taken in and of themselves are necessarily associated with specific personality dimensions. This paper briefly reports the author's first attempt to investigate empirically the relationship between the religious beliefs an individual explicitly affirms and a selfreport measure of his behavior, the extent to which he reports himself to be 'open', 'selfdisclosing' or 'known' by significant others. It was hypothesized that persons who perceive themselves as more liberal in explicitly affirmed theological stance will also perceive themselves as more 'open' and 'self-disclosing' to significant others than will persons who see themselves as theologically conservative. Further, it was hypothesized that persons from a college population will perceive themselves as more liberal in religious belief than they feel their parents would expect. Method.-Two self-report questionnaires1 were administered to 83 Ss, all undergraduate students in a southwestern university. The theological questionnaire was a 35item instrument designed by the writer for this study and having unknown reliability and validity. It included 29 items in question form focused around religious beliefs, and 6 items which reflected intensity of religious commitment. Responses were scored on a 3-point scale so that a high score was designed to reflect a conservative theological position and a low score presumably reflected a liberal stance. The possible range of scores was from 35 to 87. It should be noted here that no interpretations were made regarding whether a person was 'religious' or 'non-religious', but only whether his explicitly affirmed beliefs were 'conservative' or 'liberal'. Ss responded to the questionnaire twice; first, "as your parents would expect you to respond," and second, "as honestly as possible with regard to your own beliefs." All responses were anonymous. From the two instructional sets and two scales, four scores were derived: (A) Parentally expected religious beliefs; (B) Parentally expected religious commitment, (C) Self-chosen religious beliefs, (D) Self-chosen religious commitment. The psychological measure was Jourard's (1964) "Self-disclosure Questionnaire," a GO-item questionnaire dealing with a person's attitudes toward work, tastes, money, per'The questionnaire and supplementary data may be obtained as Document NAPS-01245 from ASIS National Auxiliary Publications Service, c/o CCM Information Corp., 909 Third Ave., 21st Floor, New York, N. Y. 10022. Remit $2.00 for microfiche or $7.30 for photocopy.

On Prejudice and Socialization: Towards Social Work Action

Abstract: I begin with the assumption that discriminatory attitudes and behaviour between person and person, group and group, nation and nation, are undesirable. They are undesirable for a number of reasons: the first, that they tend to weaken and fragment the culture-cradle of identity formation in the discriminated-against group, or alternatively that they lead to a defensive in-grownness in that culture which may have a number of consequences—a tight constriction of identity development, or an over-investment in the culture which may lead to isolation and impoverishment in the long run, or defensive projection at the group level on to the dominant culture with the possibility of covert or overt fear or war.